Healthy knee joints include two cruciate ligaments, the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and the posterior cruciate ligament (PCL). The ACL is often damaged in diseased or injured knee joints, and may be removed during total knee replacement. It is considered desirable, however, to retain the PCL because of its importance for the stability of the knee during bending. When the PCL is damaged beyond repair or otherwise must be removed, a posterior stabilized knee prosthesis is implanted. This prosthesis includes a femoral component with an intercondylar box-shaped part. Therefore, a similarly box-shaped intercondylar bone portion must be resected from the femur to accommodate the femoral component.
Knee joints that require posterior stabilized knee prosthesis are typically severely damaged and intercondylar box resection is a challenging and painstaking procedure. Several cutting guides and milling devices have been developed to assist the surgeon in this procedure. Typically, two or more such guides, each designed to perform different resections, are needed to perform this procedure. The use of multiple guides increases the duration, complexity and cost of the procedure and is less than desirable. Therefore, there is a need for a single guide that can be used to perform multiple different resections.